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Not a story to be ignored, after all

The following conversation between the three voices of CKNW’s Trailing Edge from the Ledge was first reported at Northern Insight in October 2009.

Keith:

Vaughn called them nut cases in the past…

Vaughn:

Nincompoops ranting in their underpants is the term for people blogging, for me.

Keith:

“I don’t believe these weirdos on the internet.”

Finally, May 7 2012, the pundit, Mr. “I’ve Seen No Evidence” Palmer, admits he has been wrong and bloggers, such as the one you are now reading, have been correct. Palmer and friends pretended otherwise but a rancid smell surrounded the sale of BC Rail from the beginning. Remember the explanation that it wasn’t actually a sale, it was a 990 year lease?

Palmer says, unequivocally, although obliquely, indeed there is a news story to examine related to BC Rail, specifically the $6 million inducement paid by BC Liberals with taxpayer money to end the Basi/Virk trial hours before former Finance Minister Collins was to testify.

Palmer still does not ask necessary questions. For example, who coordinated the $6 million inducement and the guilty pleas and made arrangements with the Special Prosecutor? Was it former AG Wally Oppal or former AG Geoff Plant? Certainly, it beggars belief that the convoluted arrangement to relieve the accused was unconnected to their surprise guilty pleas and the extraordinarily lax terms of house arrest – terms that allowed them almost unrestricted absences and the right to carry on life much as usual.

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I looked at the Vancouver Sun website and Palmer's article doesn't appear. After being informed by you and RossK about Palmer's writings, I had to do a search on the Sun's website to find it. Even when one of their scribes writes about it, the details are hidden from the public.

Norm: I've always pondered how it was that Basi and Virk were able to retain their respective lawyers for what, 7 years? without apparently having to pay any fees. Can you imagine yourself being charged with the same offence that they were charged without having to anti up some pretty heavy coin to any lawyer and on a regular basis? This leads me to think that others were funding their defence. I've even heard rumours that some well-connected Liberals got out their cheque books. So, now that we are all aware of the 6 million payment, which was apparently stick-handled by Wally Oppal, it begs the question: was this all arranged in order to pay back some of that coin advanced by the benefactors? I just cannot fathom these lawyers working for many years on good faith alone that they will eventually get paid. There have been so many underhanded deals over the last 10 years (politcally) that nothing would surprise me anymore.

The BC Government paid Basi and Virk legal fees from the beginning. The $6 million paid to the lawyers on behalf of B&V was to be repaid unless they were found innocent of charges. It is the release of the obligation that becomes the issue.

My theory is that BC Liberals expected the charges could be disposed of administratively through a stay of proceedings. Justice Bennett did not cooperate and allowed too much onto the public record to allow for stays. In other words, there was never an expectation that Basi and Virk would be convicted or would ever repay the money paid to lawyers.

The whole strategy almost worked for the Liberals. Alex Tsakumis and other bloggers kept this from happening. It is not the largest financial scam of the BC Liberals but it is the one that is destroying the party and numerous reputations. There will be no mountains named after Gordon Campbell or Christy Clark!

The stench of this BC Liberal government, is worse than a rotting corpse. it is not just BC Rail, but the $5 billion+ Gateway project, which more and more looks like a private highway for development of the Tsawwassen First Nation's land. The TFN shopping mall is to be one of the largest in BC, but their is little local population to support it, so punters going to shop at the mall must come via a new highway. The almost $750 million Hwy 17/Gateway interchange is massive and so positioned to feed new housing on once was ALR land.

Campbell and his oily hands are all over TFN/ALR lands and true to Campbell's form, his friends and cronies stand to make hundreds of millions of dollars in profit at the detriment of precious farmland.

BC has become a land of evil, where profit at any price is the modus operandi of the government.

Finally the story (years late) catches Palmer's attention and oozes out. Too little, way too late and still with spin. Thank goodness for you Norm and Ross, Ian, Alex, Harvey, Grant, Mary, Laila, Paul, Bill T. and many others in the “Loonie Tunes Blogosphere” for doing the work not done by the worst than useless (nothing to see hear – please just move along) we have a corrupt government to cover up for MSM. Anyway I only hope that the outrageously tangled explanation for the waiving of legal fees and preauthorized stay out of jail scheme is seen for what it really is and by extension what the Liberals are all about.

I know it's a pipe dream but with respect, perhaps we could name the Victoria Regional District primary waste treatment effluent pipe in honour of Christie and Gordo.

Hi Norm,I howled at The Vancouver Sun's 'loophole' and 'technicality' editorial today. These 'convicted criminals' managed to get away with it this time…. Hilarious! This rings as true as the convenient announcement that Christy was cleared just days before she was 'elected' leader. Don't they realize how VERY obvious such revisionist reporting and editorializing is to the reader? We know the real story and we know the many reasons why Palmer has spun things as he has for years now. This just confirms that it was all by design.

“Palmer as mouthpeice for the attorney general” well that pretty much says it all. when the attorney general of this province[not really] seeks him out to enlighten us all well!The BCRail scandal is a cancer in this province, never diagnosed, never treated, that now has matastasized. Our province has been so debilitated by this that until it is addressed and we know the extent of it it is impossible to remove it and return to some semblence of health.This cancer is killing us slowly but surely as a province as it would a person. Putting off dealing with it as Mr. Palmer and Mr. Baldrey would like or being blind to it as our beloved Mr. Good will simply insure our death though ignorance.Don

I now beleive the main stream media, will begin a “feeding frenzy” over this issue. They will fall all over themselves, in the race to see who can break the story, we all know through the blog world, first!

I expect little more than reluctant involvement with the story from Postmedia and the Shaw Family outlets (Corus Radio & Global TV), excepting Simi Sara and Jon McComb.

Today, Vaughn Palmer was not reporting information he gathered through investigation. He was simply giving the view that government wanted us to have. They could have issued a press release or bought an advertisement. Instead, they chose a dependable media instrument. He play the song they wanted played.

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